Fractured Soul
by FLECHER
Summary: In 2187, Commander Shepard secured victory against the Reapers. Official records say she left to clean up the Terminus Systems, and hasn't been seen or heard of since. But what really happened? One-shot implied Shepard/Samara


First of all, I would like to say this was inspired by a moving post made on the Bioware Social Forums by "Flamewielder." I can't quite say what it what, for the sake of spoiling the story, but here's a hint: if you don't like character death, you may not like this. It's not Shepard, in a sense; you'll see what I mean with that.

This is set a few years Post-ME3, and is just a oneshot on its own. A "What-If". Since the line that is used in this story wouldn't make sense if it were tied to how things turned out in my Oneshot Trilogy. So...

**Warning: **Much angst follows after this point.

* * *

Garrus stepped through the airlock, thankful for the helmet he wore keeping out the unpleasant cocktail of scents that choked the residents of Omega. He hadn't come here in several years, but he remembered the hell hole of a station vividly; a pang of remorse flickered in his chest at the memory. _Shepard…_his brow plates shifted into a frown, glancing over his shoulder at the docked Normandy.

Shaking his head to rid himself of distracting thoughts, he walked briskly to the streets, finding his way to Afterlife. He needed to find someone, and Aria would be the one person able to accurately pinpoint their location. They had been spotted here before, going by their moniker "Black Angel." Not something they chose themselves, he heard; but something the people of the Terminus systems gave them. Akin to him being called "Archangel" for all his deeds long ago. Their moniker was bourn of both their actions and the enigmatic black armour they wore at all times. No one had ever seen their face; and the only solid thing known to everyone but him and select few, was that Black Angel was a human.

Moving through the nightclub, he noted how little it had changed since last time he was here. Something about that was comforting and disconcerting at the same time.

Aria agreed to see him, in spite of the fact that he felt she knew who he really was. Maybe it was just paranoia.

"Can you tell me where to find 'Black Angel'?"

--- Omega - Malesh Refinery District ---

This seemed to perfect place for them to be. This district was full of workers, and slaves; endlessly toiling away while their masters just cracked the proverbial whip harder. Most of all, the so-called 'strong' kicking the weak. Garrus moved through the back allies, careful to keep out of sight. He would stand out if he moved in the open, but keeping to the shadows allowed him to observe and remain unseen.

He stopped as a sudden cry came to him, and quickly moved up to the catwalks that crisscrossed above the grimy streets. Looking over the railing, he could see a krogan was harassing one of the labourers, a dusky scaled drell; who tried to take up as little space as possible. The krogan grabbed the Drell by his arm and pulled sharply, throwing him to the floor with enough force to loudly crack a few ribs.

But before Garrus could move, draw his weapon, do anything at all; a loud rifle shot echoed in the street. Gore splattered on the ground and the korgan stumbled, his eyes wide as blood gushed out of the large hole that had burst through his skull plate. Then he crumpled to the floor, hands twitching ever so slightly as dying nerves kept firing off in vain.

He looked up sharply, searching for the shooter, and caught a glimpse of black armour, glowing blue optics and the faintest sliver of gold turning away from the edge of another catwalk. The figure quickly disappeared. Garrus growled to himself and followed as swiftly as he could, trying to discern where they would go.

He wouldn't lose them, not this time. He had been hunting Black Angel for a year now, trying to find them, trying to get into contact with them. This was the closest he had ever been, he had never seen them before; as brief a glimpse as it was - it was still something.

It had been so long…

"_Shepard?" no answer came to him for a moment, and he called again. "Ashira?" again no answer. She hadn't come out of her cabin in a week since the celebrations at the citadel; they were well out of council space by now. She hadn't wanted to stay despite being a hero; hell all of them were. Garrus sighed, and quickly brought up his Omni-tool, hacking the door control and unlocking it. As it slid open, he peered into the dark room, what little light provided by the fish tanks had been dimmed, making it difficult to see inside._

_Stepping into the room, he squinted his eyes, "Ashira?" his voice was softer now, an undertone of worry clear within it. He could smell an unclean body at the very least, but he couldn't hear anything, not even a faint sob or hitched breath. Moving by the small work space and down the steps, he glanced at the table and sofa. Empty._

_Quietly padding over to the bed, he could tell there wasn't anyone curled up in it, but the sheets were strewn about haphazardly, the cover slipping off to the side until just one corner was actually resting on the bed itself. Walking around the side where it disappeared, he frowned upon realising there was a body under it. The Turian knelt down, and carefully reached out, pulling the sheet back. There she was, eyes hollow and glassy; wet with tears. One hand clutched at the sheet, keeping it tightly around her body, while the other fervently held a small case to her chest. _

_Mandibles flaring in a dismayed look, Garrus slowly grasped Ashira's chin, turning her head so she would look at him. When he finally managed to lock gazes with her, it felt as if his blood froze then and there. Her eyes were cold and dead, so utterly lifeless; and yet full of an anguish he couldn't begin to understand. He had planned to come up here, ask her if she was alright, see if there was anything he could do; but seeing her now…_

Garrus's brow plates shifted into a determined frown. _You won't get away again._

--- Malesh Refinery District - Slums ---

Garrus was again thankful for his helmet, the air here was thick with oil and sickness; he was sure if he removed his helmet he'd smell decaying flesh.

He was still catching glimpses of them, following as quickly and quietly as he could. _Where are you going? _he narrowed his eyes. Ahead of him, Black Angel was hurrying along the catwalks, and then suddenly vaulted over the railing, landing a few meters below with a low grunt and swiftly carried on. Jumping down as well, he followed the quickly retreating figure. Black Angel lead him through a maze of twists and turns, until he couldn't tell where they were anymore, only that he was still following the vigilante. But eventually, they slowed down, and turned down another alley way. Peering around the corner, he saw them disappear through a loose wall plating, which was quickly pulled back into place.

Walking up to it, he carefully traced around the edges to see where it was disconnected from the rest of the wall. Hooking his fingers into it and pulling it away, he moved it aside in silence, and stepped inside, closing the 'door' behind him soundlessly as well. He could make any mistake, Black Angel would surely run if they knew someone was following. But maybe they did know, and were allowing it. Garrus turned away, seeing that the panel lead into a long maintenance tunnel. He sighed lowly and hurried along as quietly as possible.

"_How is she?" Joker asked, only half-heartedly hiding his concern. _

_Garrus hung his head, brow plates moving into a frown. "Dr Chakwas says she needs to be monitored; she's worried about her mental state. Said we should go back to the citadel to get some professional help for her but…" he shook his head slowly at the end, the words just lost to him. _

_Joker smiled weakly, "yeah, the Commander doesn't do the whole 'opening-up to cry on your shoulder' thing." Garrus looked up, "at least not to us, and __**definitely **__not to a stranger she's never met. But the only person she __**would **__open up to is why we're even in this situation…"_

The vigilante took several turns into the tunnel, before eventually coming to another panel; a vent this time. Prying the grating off, they slipped through into another room. They didn't come back to fix the panel. Garrus moved slowly closer, until he reached the opening and peered around the edge to see inside.

Black Angel was oblivious to him, walking further into what was clearly an apartment. He glanced at the door, seeing that it was welded shut; the lock wasn't active. An abandoned apartment it would seem. Removing their guns, most were placed on a weapon's rack, but the pistol was left on their hip; now closer, one could clearly tell that the human was female.

She reached up, hesitantly, and began to remove the recon hood from her head. She was careful with it, as though the mix of plating and ballistics mesh were something precious. To an extent they were, if only for the rare golden symbols attached above and around the eyes; but Garrus had an inkling of what that simple hood meant to her. How reluctantly she lay it down next to her weapons; armoured fingertips gently tracing the lines of the symbols.

"_She's gone, Garrus. The person you knew, that we all knew; that person is dead. She doesn't react to her name, her rank; none of them…"_

_They had returned to the Citadel, knowing they had to try and do __**something**__ rather than just let her waste away. They had survived Saren and the Geth, they had survived the Collectors, and then finally the Reapers as well. Thinking back over it now, Garrus vehemently cursed the galaxy. Why had someone who had done so much good, more than any other sapient creature alive could have done; been rewarded with a broken soul and warped mind?_

_Garrus's fists clenched, "she didn't deserve this, Anderson. No one else cares enough; she's the hero of the galaxy three times over and all the politics are saying is that she's gone crazy!"_

_Anderson hung his head, his jaw setting in a grim line, "at least they didn't say it to the public. They only said that the Commander would be working the Terminus systems regularly by her own accord. I can't do anything more, Garrus, I'm sorry." _

_Garrus bristled with anger, opening his mouth to yell only for his comm to crackle with life. Anderson looked up, to see Garrus with a stunned yet dismayed look on his plated face. "What is it?"_

_She was gone. She had jumped ship, taken her armour and weapons and left. _

He slinked through the vent and landed on the floor, but as quiet as he was, she noticed. He dived behind the half wall that neatly separated the living area from what served as her kitchen, swearing under his breath at the bullets that followed after him. "Shepard! It's me! Garrus!"

The bullets stopped. Lifting his head, he could see she was still using a pillar for cover, but she had at least stopped firing at him. Reaching up, he took off his helmet and put it aside, so that if she did look she would see his face and know he was telling the truth. "Shepard," he started slowly, getting up from the wall. "Ashira." He carefully approached the human, until he was at the pillar, looking around it to try and see her face. However, she had pulled the hood back on somewhere between drawing her pistol and finding cover. He reached out, his hand just touched her arm before she turned away sharply.

She moved as if he wasn't there, ignoring his presence and putting her pistol on the coffee table.

"Shepard…?" her voice came out cold as ice, devoid of emotion; yet he could almost taste the bitterness in it. It chilled his blood. "Don't know her. Now leave me; I need to rest."

Garrus frowned deeply, staring at the back of Ashira's hood. She turned at the waist slightly, looking back at him; his eyes flicked up to fixate on the symbols she wore.

"_Shepard! Harbinger's core will send out the signal, all the Reapers will be disabled, but if we don't get out of here now we'll be liquefied in our own suits!" Garrus called out over their comms, firing off a concussive blast to take down several charging husks. Ashira nodded, gesturing to both him and Samara to fall back._

_The husks kept coming, but the constant hail of bullets- timed so that even if two reloaded, one would still be firing - managed to keep them at bay as the squad retreated further through the deathly, frigid halls of Harbinger's body. However, more of them were coming, pouring out of every nook and corner to try and stop the group, punish them for what they had accomplished. "Fall back!" they started to run, unable to keep up their steady retreat from the husks growing numbers._

_The rest of the team had been split up to deal with reinforcements, just like the Collector Base; Harbinger's body was massive and the other teams had managed to infiltrate and disable the Reaper's functions. Now they had managed to get back to the Normandy from their respective missions, Ashira, Garrus and Samara were the only ones left._

_They rushed through the metallic halls, taking out the husks when they could spare to look back and shoot. Reaching the entrance of a main chamber - where they had left the Kodiak - Ashira turned back to give covering fire as Garrus hacked into the door controls. Biotics hummed violently in the air as Samara threw back as many husks as she could, the force of it breaking them apart as Ashira's revenant tore into them with the same efficiency._

_Garrus looked back sharply, "its open! GO!" they quickly retreated through the doors, continuing to fire at the oncoming husks. However, with cold horror, Garrus noticed that there was no door control. Ashira noticed the lack of a closing door and her jarring yell cut through him, "what the __**hell**__ are you doing, Garrus!?"_

_He grit his jaw, firing another concussive shot. "It can't be closed from this side!"_

_Somehow it didn't surprise him when Ashira stepped into the doorway, firing with more accuracy to take out the husks legs and immobilize them rather than outright killing them. It gave her precious split-seconds to focus on a new enemy. "Get to the damn shuttle then!"_

_He stepped up beside her, firing with the same goal of keeping the husks down. "No chance, Shepard! I wasn't there to stop it last time! You're not dying again!" - "I gave you an order!"_

_Neither had time to react as they were suddenly pulled back from the door, arcing through the air to land at the half way point between the entrance and the shuttle. A calm, familiar voice came over there comms, but the words were really just meant for the commander. "Another life, Ashira…" she lifted her head from the ground sharply. "Samara!" Ashira scrambled to her feet, rushing forwards, only for Garrus to lock his arms around her waist and yank her back. "Shepard! Don't be foolish!" she didn't want to listen, kicking her legs and squirming to try and get free. But she stilled long enough to watch - watch helplessly as Samara calmly walked into the husk infested corridor - her omnitool flashing briefly over the door control - and closed it behind her. It slammed shut, crushing several husks that were about to get through._

_Ashira kicked and struggled again, screaming and cursing Garrus as the turian dragged her to the shuttle. They couldn't do anything, all they __**could**__ do was make sure they survived; otherwise Samara's sacrifice would be in vain. But he knew that was hardly a point Ashira was able to comprehend right now. _

_-_

_She had struggled out of his grasp after a few quiet moments, stumbling to the other side of the shuttle but not sitting down. She pressed her hands into the wall, her head hung low. Garrus watched her carefully, wary of what Shepard might do right now. The soldier slid to her knees, trembling all over, before she ultimately screamed and slammed her fist into the floor. She did it again with another scream, and kept doing this until Garrus knelt down by her side and tightly wrapped his arms around her. She went quiet after that; silent tears running down her face._

"Shep-"

"Not here!" she snapped all of a sudden, her hands clenching into fists. She looked away, head bowing. "Not Shepard. Not Ashira. Not Specter. Not Commander…" her hands unclenched, hanging loosely by her sides. "Not human. Please, just leave me…" her voice became a hoarse whisper. "Leave, never come back. Never go looking. Never speak of again. Forget."

Garrus was silent, staring at his friend as it finally sank in just how much Samara's death had affected her. The intent may well have been good; but by every spirit and god in existence he wished he had been the one to sacrifice himself. The Commander was broken beyond repair, no amount of talking, comfort or 'professional' therapy would ever help her. Garrus's jaw clenched tightly; guilt gnawing away inside him at what his friend had become. He had been there, he had wanted to protect her; and he failed. He should have been the one to die.

A hand on one side of his face brought him out of his thoughts, it was armoured and cold. The eyes that stared up at him were discs of glowing blue, framed by the same golden symbols Samara had worn until one particular battle. One side of them was broken and cracked, where a bullet had glanced off instead of striking the Justicar's skull.

He couldn't tell what expression was on Ashira's face, it was completely hidden behind the cold mesh of her hood; but he could feel her gaze. "Not your fault; please, just go…"

--- Normandy ---

"Did you find her?" Joker looked up from his seat, hearing Garrus come in from the airlock. The turian glanced aside, looking out at Omega from their docking bay; somewhere out there, a group of mercenaries were learning a new definition of hell. He bowed his head, and looked back at the Normandy's helmsman. "Just a ghost, Joker. Just a ghost…"

--- Omega - Haellen District - Eclipse Warehouse ---

Lysa didn't know what to do, this whole operation had gone to hell. At first it looked like everything was going to go smoothly, then the traps set up in their warehouse went off, destroying most of their merchandise and killing many of her sisters. Then the shots of a sniper rifle could clearly be heard, taking out more of them as the group had tried desperately to organise themselves. She had heard several, hollow clanks that sounded like canisters being dropped , before the place began to fill with smoke. It was impossible to see anything more than a few inches away now.

They had been taken out one by one, until she was left with only one other asari, and a cowering salarian. He was twitching and fidgeting, whispering madly to himself about how they were going to die.

"Would you just shut up?" she hissed, grabbing him by the arm and shaking him a little. "You're going to lead them right to us!" she kept her voice low, fear coiled tight in her gut like a ball of icy poison.

A bullet ripped through the side of his skull, splattering his brains and inky blood into the crate he was huddled against. Lysa couldn't help the scream of shock that escaped her, jerking back from the dead salarian. "Screw this!" she dived up from her cover, leaving the other asari to the same fate. Her scream was cut off sharply by another gunshot.

Lysa kept running, trying to find her way through the clouded warehouse; she needed out before whatever creature was hunting them found her as well.

Fate didn't see things her way.

Another gun shot and she yelped in pain, stumbling and landing sharply, clutching at her wounded leg. Heavy, booted footfalls caught her attention, and she looked up to see a tall figure emerging from the surrounding smog. Cold, glowing optics stared out from a faceless mask, black armour speckled with a few droplets of blood. Then she saw the mark on her killer's forehead, and her eyes widened, blood running cold. "J-Justicar…" she whispered, breathless with fear.

The figure stopped a few feet away from her, silent for a moment before they lifted their gun, levelling it to aim at her head.

"Correct."

---

_In the years that followed, the name "Black Angel" was feared in the Terminus systems by those that would dare prey on the weak and make their own laws. Omega's criminals lost more and more people, until it became too much trouble to stay in business on the station. _

_They __**tried**__ to be rid of the vigilante, but this was no "Archangel" - the human decimated any attempt at killing her._

_Garrus returned to the Citadel, where he applied to become a recognised Specter; something that was accepted with haste. He kept the Normandy and the old crew together, doing what they did best, and honouring the legacy Shepard had left them._

* * *

Ahem; reviews will be much appreciated.

**_Author Note:_** Due to a recent review, I may need to clear up something for anyone reading this and confused by the ending.

Ashira has taken on the persona of a Justicar, and yes, whilst how she's "lost it" in this story may not be how **_you_ **picture **_your _**Shepard reacting, this is how I view **_mine _**doing so. As a developed character by now, I know how wounded Ashira already is as a person; she fell madly in love once, and that person died on Akuze while she was running to her for saftey. Since then, she hadn't let anyone get close enough to touch her heart. _I realise this conflicts with the implied Shepard/Liara in my previous one-shots, but I only came to this conclusion recently; I've still been developing Ashira as a character and person.  
_

Ashira fell **_hard_** and unexpectedly for Samara, so losing her like that was just the final straw for Ash's strength. She's saved the galaxy three times now; her purpose is gone - the reapers are destroyed. And the only person she's ever loved since Akuze died.

**_End Author Note_**

Thank you for reading my story.


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